Verso Paper Idles Bucksport Mill for Two Weeks
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Verso Paper Corp., Memphis, Tenn., USA, has idled its Bucksport, Maine, mill for some two weeks to control inventory amid a flood of paper supply on the market and a spike in natural gas prices. The mill went down last Friday and laid off about 560 workers. The mill’s biomass boiler remains in operation.
Last week, high natural gas prices also forced Gorham Paper and Tissue, Gorham, N.H., to restructure. The company is running only one or two of its four paper machines on a regular basis the remainder of this winter. CEO Mike Cummings estimated between 20 and 50 employees were being laid off and others will incur intermittent weeklong layoffs.
Verso Paper spokesman Bill Cohen noted in an article by the Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine) that "this is happening because of the extraordinary cost of natural gas, which happened last winter as well. And also, a soft order book, which is typical for this time of year. Instead of making paper and keeping it in a warehouse, we’re shutting down for two weeks."
The company also is idling a large gas turbine because the "cost of natural gas is exorbitant," Cohen said.
Other Maine paper companies have limited production or shut down parts of their operations this winter as extreme cold spells triggered a spike in wholesale prices for natural gas and electricity, the Portland Press Herald reported. The lack of natural gas pipeline capacity north of New York has pinched the supply in New England, it added.
Huhtamaki Inc.’s molded-fiber mill in Waterville, Maine, said in December it would likely idle machines and send workers home again this winter if power prices continue to make production unprofitable. Another workplace, the UPM paper mill in Madison, Maine, said it took unspecified steps to adjust its output, the newspaper reported.
